News Digest — 2/22/19
Netanyahu Slams ‘Wild Anti-Semites’ In France
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office on Tuesday (19th), “Eighty Jewish graves were desecrated with Nazi symbols by wild anti-Semites.”
Netanyahu called on the leaders of France and Europe to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism, which he called “a plague that endangers everyone, not just us.”
He continued, “Anti-Semitism must be condemned wherever and whenever it rears its head.”
The hate crime in France occurred amid a disturbing spike in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe. According to France’s Ministry of the Interior, the number of anti-Semitic acts in France rose in 2018 by 74%.
While French leaders condemned the vandalism, including President Emmanuel Macron, who promised that the French government “will take action,” France has been the site of a number of gruesome anti-Semitic crimes during the past few years, including an attack on a Jewish supermarket in 2015 that left 4 people dead.
According to a report by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, “No fewer than 12 Jews have been killed in France in six separate incidents since 2003: Sebastien Selam, Ilan Halimi, Jonathan Sandler, Gabriel Sandler, Aryeh Sandler, Myriam Monsonego, Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, Francois-Michel Saada, Yoav Hattab, Lucie Attal and Mireille Knoll.”
According to the Guardian, “in most cases, the perpetrators have been linked with some form of extremist Islam.”
(pmo.gov.il; theguardian.com; ap.com)
Abbas: We Will Pay Every Penny To The Martyrs
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responded Tuesday evening (19th) to the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to implement the policy to offset the PA’s payments to terrorists.
Under the law passed by the Knesset in July 2018, $140,350,300 in tax revenue will be withheld from the PA.
“Israel claims that the PA transfers funds to terrorists and therefore wants to offset these funds,” Abbas said in a speech, according to Channel 13 News. “So I say that we do not want to receive these funds and every penny we have – we will transfer to the families of the martyrs.”
PA officials have remained defiant and have made clear that the PA will never cease terrorists’ salaries, threatening that Netanyahu would have to pay more if the salaries were deducted from the payments to the PA.
Abbas has in the past called the PA’s continued payments to terrorists a “red line” that would not be halted under any circumstances.
In his remarks on Tuesday (19th), the PA chairman also said that the peace process with Israel is on the verge of collapse. “We are not interested in this because this is dangerous to the region,” he insisted.
(israelnn.com)
Temple Mount Flashpoint: Jerusalem’s Golden Gate In Jewish Tradition – Lenny Ben-David
The Golden Gate of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has been walled up since medieval times. Its Hebrew name is Sha’ar HaRachamim (Gate of Mercy). Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police recently took place around the Bab al-Rahma – a large structure inside the Golden Gate that police closed off in 2003 and that the Islamic Waqf wants reopened.
According to Jewish tradition, Sha’ar HaRachamim is the gate through which the Messiah will come. The gate was sealed and a Muslim cemetery placed there allegedly to prevent the Messiah from using it. A rare photo from 1900 from the Library of Congress, captioned “Interior of Golden Gate,” shows a room with massive columns. The gate dates back to the 7th-8th century CE and was built over an earlier gate. A photo shows the top of the arch of the earlier gate.
When Israel sealed the gate in 2003 it was to stop illegal construction work there by the Waqf, which Israeli officials believe had led to the destruction of antiquities from periods of Jewish presence in the area.
(timesofisrael.com; twitter.com)
Tunnels Won’t Help Terrorists Against Israeli Defense Firm’s ROCKS Missile
Israeli defense electronics company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. has unveiled the new ROCKS long-range air-to-surface missile at the current Aero India show in Bangalore. The missile is said to be capable of destroying underground targets.
According to Rafael, the new missile can be fired long distances from a combat aircraft towards surface and underground targets so that the aircraft remains outside of the area targeted by air defense systems. The missile travels faster than the speed of sound, says the company, further reducing the likelihood that the aircraft firing the missile will be detected by anti-aircraft defenses.
Rafael says that the missile can also hit moving targets and disrupt GPS navigation systems if it is targeted.
The ROCKS missile itself is guided most of the way to the target by a GPS navigation system, while the final meters are carried out by a homing device and processing photographs of the target to ensure a precise hit. Rafael has not disclosed full details about the range of the missile and its payload but stresses that the warhead is lethal.
“Aero India is an excellent opportunity to present this new system, and we can proudly say that today Rafael is well-situated in India with a broad industrial base, joint-ventures, indigenous companies, and a substantial supply chain,” said Yuval Miller, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Rafael’s Air & C4lSR Systems Division.
(worldisraelnews.com; globes.co.il)
Omar To Keynote Event For Hamas-linked Organization
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar is scheduled to raise money in March with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), reports the Daily Caller, a conservative American news and opinion site.
“Cair-LA is honored to have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as the featured speaker for the 4th annual Valley Banquet,” says the council’s website.
Omar is to be the keynote speaker at the Los Angeles event on March 23rd to discuss advancing justice and empowering Muslims, according to the organization’s invitation.
Hassan Shibly, the chief executive for CAIR-Florida, will also be speaking at the event. Shibly has emphatically stated that Hizbullah and Hamas are not terror organizations, said a report in the Conservative Review.
In 2014, Shibly claimed that the Hamas terror tunnels found by Israel in the northern Gaza Strip were “being used in the defense of Palestine.”
Hussam Ayloush, the chief executive director for CAIR-LA who is hosting the event, compared the State of Israel to the Islamic State (ISIS) during a speech in April. He has also described the US armed forces as terrorists, said the Daily Caller.
The US Department of Justice listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in funding millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas. Additionally, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) named CAIR a terrorist organization along with Al-Qaeda and ISIS in 2014.
In an earlier tweet in 2012, Ilhan Omar wrote, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
CAIR has defended comments by both Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, another Muslim Congresswoman who has sharply criticized Israel and – like Omar – called for boycotting the Jewish State.
(worldisraelnews.com)
